Oil heater for topping stills



J. E. BELL.

OIL HEATER FOR TOPPING STILLS.

APPLICATION FILED IuIIE Io. 1920.

1,418,272. Patented June 6, 1922.

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4 J. E. BELL.

l OIL HEATER FOR TOPPING STILLS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE I0, 1920.

1 ,418,27-2.- Patented June 6,1922.

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JOHN E. Rm, 'or BEoOxLYN,-NEW YORK, AssIeNoR 'ro :POWER SPECIALTY COMPANY,

- OE NEW YORK, N. Y.,A CORPORATION OE NEW YORK.

OIL HEATER EOR rorrine srrnns.

.' :1,418,2320 L Specification of Letters lPatent. Patented Jun@ 6, 1922.

Application led June 10, 1920. Serial No. 387,970.

To au ,who/,'71, t may 00mem. ,A ter current flow, and which, moreover, per- Be it known that I, JOHN E. BELL, a mits the oil to travel always upward so that citizen of the United States, residing at the vapors may separate in the tubes and Brooklyn, County of Kings, and State of travel with the oil. In my improved appa- New York, have invent d certain new and ratus the tubes exposed to the hotter-gas do 60 useful Improvements in Oil Heaters for not contain `the hottest oil throughout, but Topping Stills, of which the following is a do so to a sufficient extent for good pracfull, clear, and 4exact description. tical results and in this respect the arrange- In the art of heating volatile oils in which ment is a Compromise between the two difthe oil is passed through tubes or pipes exferent plans outlined above as characteristic 65 posed to a current of hot gases,'and comlof present day topping stills. `monly known as pipe heaters foretopp/ing In illustration, let it be assumed that' an stills, the conditions best adapted for pracoil of relatively slight'visc-ositv is to be distical working and the attainment of the best tilled; the present forms of apparatus are resultshave not, by any means, been develnot well adapted to its treatment. This is, 70 oped to the desired degree. Such devices of course, a special'case, but as my present are either'uneconomical in fuel consumptlon device is primarily designed to meet it, I or expensive in construction, largely if not shall describe it as used for such purpose, mainly because the oil is not subjected to a as in addition to the special features which l uniform and progressive increase in tem- I have devisedfor this purpose, the desira- .75

perature, due to the difficulty 'o f obtaining,l bility of the otherv features for general, as the proper gas iiowover the heatlng surface. well as for this special use, will be observed For example, in the topping stills that are an d appreciated. now in'use the oil is exposed to heat in pipes In general terms, my improved yapparatus extending across a furnace and no attempt. comprises two chambers usually and pref- 80 is made to baffle the hot gases so that they erably dividedfby a .vertical wall or partiwill pass over all the heating surface and tion, the first leading up from the furnace or at a high'velocity. source of heat, the other at its end-remote Again, in some of these devices In an atfrom the lfirst connecting with the flue or -tempt to protect the lower row of' tubes, stack. A

the cold oil is pumped into this lower row4 In the vsecond chamber Vare arranged a where itis exposed to a higher gas temperaplurality of tubes for oil which, in the case ture and from this point on there is an upof a still for an oil of relatively slight vise ward iiow of the oil into the drum. nat cosity, are of relatively small diameter and tempt to secure a flow of oil through the preferable, connected in vertical series in 90 tubes counter to the flow of the hot gases, multiple with upper and lower headers. has required that the oll be pumped into The upper header leads to the bottom of a vthe tubes at the top of the bank and the hot bank of special tubes in the upper part of oil run oif at the bottom, but this arrangethe rst chamber, which latter are connected 40 ment, however, is not satisfactory because 1n series between such header and an outlet 95 any vapors that would form inthe tubes header at the top. must rise against the flow of the oil. As the row of tubes at the bottom of this This problem I have studied and by the second bank, or for safetys sake, if need be,

" apparatus upon which is based my'present the two lowermost rows of such tubes, are 4.5 application for Letters` Patent I have sucexposed not only to the radiant heat, but 10@ ceeded in overcoming many of the obj ections also to the very hot gases immediately above which have been heretofore attachedto defthe ire, 'these tubes are enveloped' in cast- Y vices of this character. I have designed, iron casings of less thickness or weight per Itherefore, an apparatus which 'insures a lineal foot than the remaining tubes of the proper gas, pass over all the heating surbank, in Order that they may absorb less of lo@ face and at a suiciently high velocity to 1n the heat and so not subject the oil passing sure the rapid and proper absorption of through them to too great'a heating effect. heat. I also propose to use an arrangement The other tubes of the bank, on the other which, in addition to securing the proper hand, have cast-iron envelopes of greater e5 gas pass, hasalso the advantage'of a coun- -surface, whereby for a given and lesser temil@ perature they will absorb a correspondingly' greater amount of heat.

The oil for this device is introduced underl the proper pressure to the bottom header of the first ba-nk, and is then ledfto the bottom header ofthe second bank. From this it rey l sults that in the primary heating' ofgthe oil in the first bank, an absolutely perfect countercurrent of oil flow to gas flow is secured. T hls counter-current principle is not maintained in the second bank and is not necessary, for by the time the oil reaches the second bank .it is heated to a degree which makes the counter-current effect unnecessary to efiicient and economical operation.

. The tubes of the first bank need not be of any special character, that is to say, no special means are required to protect them from the destructive effects of the ho't gases, as

the latter, by the time they have swept the second'bank and reached the tubes ofthe first have parted with enough of their heat to render their action on the first bank of tubes harmless.l

I' prefer, however, to enclose all tubesin casings or envelopes composed of vcast iron l ringsI for two purposes First,becausey such envelopes prevent the tubes from bulging,4

` and the usual breakdown are due to -suchbulges which subsequently crack; and, second, the corrugated form of the rings increases the heating surface of the tube very materially and makes a more compact-strucr series by headers 6,'and at the topj to headers' .a portion of the bank of tubes in the ture.

This, improvement is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

4Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the furnace or'heating chamber of the still. v Fig.y 2isl a horizontal section of the same The enclosing walls of the device-1, are of f. the usual materialemployed for such purposes, and are built to include a fire chamber 2, a central vertical bridge wall 3, which ldivides the structure into two connected chambers or compartments.'y An oil or any other suitable fire may be used as the. source of heat. v

In the second-or rear chamber the front bank of tubes 4 'is installed. These tubes, as. above stated, are preferably of relatively" small diameter and in thepresent instance are arranged in five vertical rows, connecting at the bottom withl a single header 5, in

7. These latter run to the nearest tube in the lowest row of the second bank oftubes' 8in the first chamber, and all-of the tubes of quired.

' scription.

v9, the horizontal rows being connected in series by the headers 10.

It will be observed that the bankof tubes in' the first chamber is so located wabove the level of the tubes in the rear chamber so that there is no possibility of the oil in flowing from one bank to `the other being trapped and thereby injured by the heat.

Theinvention is not limited to any special manner ofl connecting the tubes, as theonnection whether in series or in multiple series or otherwise depends upon the viscosity of the oil and the amount of heating re- The tubes ofthe first and referably the Second. rows at the bottom of) the bank Aof tubes in the 'first chamber -are enveloped in' corrugated cast-iron casings 1l of the well. knownk Foster superheater type, and the thickness of these casings or depth of the corrugations on lsuch lower rows is lessthan that on the otherA rows, as is indicated in Figs. 1 and 3. The outlet for this second bank is shown at 12. p

The cast-iron casings which as above set forth are preferably used on the tubesv of both banks'do not cover the entire length of the tubes, but the ends of these tubes are bare and over them are secured rectangular plates 13 which, when the tubes are aa-v sembled, form the side w-alls of the heating y chamber. The headers are lconnected to the projecting bare ends outside of the plates, as shown in Fig. 4. This is not a part of my invention but is a y'valuable feature in devices of this kind. l

The oil heated by this apparatus is introduced at 14 and passes up through the mul-l tiple series of small tubes 4. from the lower to the upper headers. Thence it passesto ythe second bank of tubes and through all of these in series to the outlet header 1 2. Therefore, in the first bank, the flow o'f oil is counter to the flow 'of gases, while in the second it is ,with such current, but the effect of this has been explained above.

It isnot essential,though in some cases e very desirable, thatall the tubes in the first.-

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"bank be arranged in multiple series, .which 115 latter arrangement reduces the resistance to the yflow and secures a much more perfect heating effect, but otherwise the invention resides in the-construction and arrangement y j hereinbefore set forth? 12'() A The parts of' the device which -I have not specifically described are or may be of the usual character and require no detailed de- What I claim is :-l j 125 )1. In an apparatus of the kind described,` the combinationf'of t'wovheating chambers .connected in series, a bank of tubes arranged in the chamber furthest from the fire, a sec-v4 0nd bank of tubesin the other chamber Aso 130 disposed labove the level of the bank in the `first named chamber that oil in flowing from one bank to the other will not be trapped, the tubes in the first bank being connected so as to secure a flow of oil counter to -that of theI 4connected in series, a bank of tubes arranged in the chamber furthest from the fire and connected'with headers in series multiple, a second bank 'of tubes in the other chamber all connected in series, said second bank of tubes being so disposed above the level of the bank'in the first named chamber. that oil in owing from one bank to the other will not be trapped, an oil connection with the first bank =whereby a'flow of oil counter to that of the hot gases over said bank is secured, and a connection from the 'header of thelirst bank -to the lowermost row of the tubes in the second bank whereby the flow of oil in the said second bank is with that of the hot gases.

3. In an apparatus of the kind described,

the combination with two heating chambers connected in series, of a bank of tubes in each chamber, so disposed at dii'erent levels that the oil in flowing from one to the other will 'not be trapped, connections whereby the Aflow of oil in the bank furthest from the fre is counter to that of the hot gases, and in the second bank is with such'iow andv cast iron casings for all the tubes ofsaid banks, the thickness of those `casings on the tubes nearest the fire being less than-thaton the others. 40 4. In an apparatus of the kind described, the combination with two heating chambers connected in series, of a bank of tubes in the chamber furthest from the fire, a bank of tubes in the other chamber enveloped incast iron casings, such bank being so disposed above the level of the other that no trap for oil is formed in the connection between the banks, the casings of the tubes nearest the fire being of lessithicknessthan the others, and `connections whereby the flow of oil in the tubes of the iirst named bank is counter to that of the hot gases, andin the other bank with such How 4 l v 5. In an apparatus ofthe kinddescribed, the combination with a furnace structure having a vertical walla which divides the i same into two heating chambers communieating with eachother over the top of said Wall, of a lbank ofi tubes in each chamber, said banks being so'. arranged at different levels that no trap for ylowing oil is formed, the'tubes in the chamber furthest from the lire; being of relatively small diameter while those in the other chamber are of relatively large diameter, all of said tubes being enveloped in cast iron casings and connections whereby the oil flow in the first named-bank is counter to that of the hot gases and'in the other bank with such flow. 70

-In testimony whereof I hereto aliix my signature.

JOHN E. BELL.. 

